a) Climbing Dulit Mountain, 4000 ft & on to the ulu Tinjar River. b) A few weeks later, another trip up the Tinjar and over a shoulder of Dulit thus leaving Baram District in 4th Div. for Belaga Sub-District in 3rd Div. to have a meeting of the Orang Ulu chiefs to discuss codifying their traditional laws.

Having reached the top of Dulit at 3 p.m. from the Tinjar River, the film starts with Kenyah Berawans making a seat from which to admire the magnificent view next day. They are decorating the area by shaving but not completely detaching slithers of bark. For the night we slept on a narrow ledge with an overhang of rock to shelter us and below us the precipitous rock face of the mountain. Preparing supper and wrapped up against the chill. Next morning waited in vain in bright sunshine from 7 to 11.30 a.m. for the cloud below us to lift and reveal the magnificent view. Nearby filmed moss forest with moss clinging to branches and tree trunks (clearly visible where man in white is walking) and pitcher plants.

Start of the nearly vertical descent using notched tree trunks. My usual fear of slipping on such descents was increased because many of the steps were rotten and I was suffering from vertigo. Note how my leg and arm muscles are tense with fear. Because the locals only saw need to have railings when going upwards, what railings there were, apart from often being unstable, were undesirably low from my point of view when going down them.

Leaving Long Gela. With the exception of Temonggong Oyong Lawai Jau from the Baram, none of the locals were used to being cine filmed and so remained rigid when being photographed. Nice view of boats and hats on the river bank. Boys near a house in the Buroi tributary are playng with tops. Small girls and women return from a trip fishing for tiddlers. Small boys from a vantage point in trees watch our departure. 

The Temonggong tries to cure the locals' rigidity. 

Dome face blacking of departing visitors. A woman seen trying to clean her face of black. On leaving Long Atun, tipsy Hospital Assistant Adenan larking with an unwilling woman with a blackened face. 

Me, doubtless affected by drink, larking around with a paddle.

A small length of white to separate my two trips.

A few weeks later at Long Jegan in the Tinjar part of the wedding ceremony of Abit Belalang and Tekun Gayu leaving the longhouse. Tama Janang playing the engkrurai (pipes). The Sarawak flag.

With a party of Baram chiefs setting off to walk over the watershed near Dulit to the Koyan River, a tributary of the Belaga. Views of the Meniun Rapids in Belaga Sub-District of Kapit District. 

Penghulu Tama Udeng of the Tutoh River (Baram) is giving his views in the boat in which is also Penghulu Tama Mujan Kebeng (Baram). 

The inside of Sambup longhouse beside the Belaga River with the head of the house (Lio Mato) singing and presenting borak to the visitors from the Baram (Penghulus Balan Lejau, Gau, Tama Bulan Lian). View of Long Bangan longhouse and the Belaga River.

In Belaga launching a racing boat, made out of one long tree trunk, for the Regatta. Note the brown Belaga River water (nearest) not yet mixed with the cleaner Baloi/Rejang.

Amongst the spectators T.R. Lanyieng with wife and child (in beaded basket) on her back. Note closely tattooed arms and legs of upper-class women. During the race note a good close-up of a racing boat and shortly afterwards a fine bowsprit. 

Boys and Penghulu Hang Nyipa (of the Baloi) bathing. Views from across the Baloi River of mountain background and hill rice planting near Belaga and approaching rain storm. Outboard race.

Note the line where the vegetation meets sand and mud. This is above the average height of the river level. View of Belaga Bazaar, Fort Vyner and Government houses. 

Note the flood levels recorded above the Fort's door. In the 1942 flood "longhouses were floating downriver like ships"! On my departure from Belaga view from my boat of those returning overland (Baram Penghulus, S.N.O Wan Hashim, Olga and my boy [assistant] Mat). There were too many people on the floating wharf and it began to tilt and so the rapid switch to any boats that happened to be nearby - note the women's tattooing. A short distance downriver from Belaga is the Skapan longhouse headed by Penghulu Puso BEM.

The women process up and down - watch the dog. In a blue shirt is Lawrence Claude Wilson, a Land Dayak and clerk to the Kapit District Local Authority. The District Officer Kapit (E. White) and, in a check shirt, Agricultural Officer. Ken Kay, who is being sung to. Someone leaving with a bottle of borak. Outboard driver Abang Sulaihi (a Malay). 

P. Puso tipsily walking towards the camera. Boys, who have made blood blisters to relieve the pain on their necks and heads. 

A maiden holds a glass while singing to the already tipsy Ken Kay, who is moving his hands. He claps as he tries to put off having to drink the mixture. He hands the glass back to the singer to empty it but she merely takes a sip and a tussle ensues. He tries to hand the glass to another girl. Ken and the District Officer being blacked as they leave. 

Wilson. Information Office staff and an American correspondent whom they brought with them have enjoyed the party spirit. Tuai Rumah Laju, an Iban with a deformed nose and tattooed throat, acts as guide in the District Officer’s boat going down the Bungan and Tokok Rapids in the Rejang. 

He lights a cigarette. Later another Iban with a tattooed back, takes over and guides the boat down the Pelagus Rapids. 

Arrival at Kapit with the water at an average height. Note the bazaar and flood level marks on Fort Sylvia 1934, 1880, 1867.

About Ian Urquhart

Ian Urquhart was a decorated British soldier, posted to Sarawak, where he served from 1947 to 1965. A brilliant linguist with an abiding interest in learning about other people and their cultures, he was a natural fit to be a civil service officer.

In addition to his administrative duties, he studied the indigenous communities he encountered focusing on their varied languages. From 1951 to 1959, Ian published several articles published by the Sarawak Museum Journal.

It was during this period that he conducted many trips into the jungles of Sarawak, in particular the Kelabit highlands and the Ulu Baram. From 1957 his wife Bunty accompanied him and contributed to some of the filming. 

It was these trips that he documented on Silent Standard/Regular 8mm colour and b/w cinefilm leaving his family and the people of Sarawak with not only a detailed account of his life there, he annotated all 30 reels, 23 of which are available in this collection.